2023 PUBLIC PROGRAMS
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Mitchel Cumming & Kenzee Patterson
’A redistribution’
'A REDISTRIBUTION' PANEL DISCUSSION
Thursday 23 March
6-8pm
Verge Gallery
A wide-ranging conversation exploring the exhibition’s varied layers of inquiry, this panel discussion engaged with disparate fields from the archaeological to the aesthetic. Patterson and Cumming were joined by Nicola Simpson, archaeologist and researcher at the University of Sydney; Matthew Connell, Director of Curatorial, Collections and Programs at the Powerhouse Museum; artists/writers/publishers Tom Melick and Simryn Gill (Stolon Press), and additional speakers to be announced.
Accessibility: Auslan interpreted
Kenzee Patterson, Millstones / Norfolk Island basalt (work in progress), 2023, hand-printed polyester plate lithograph on paper hand-made from reconstituted scrap conservation matboard, printed by Grey Hand Press, Meanjin/Brisbane . Image courtesy of the artist.
ID: This is a detail of a white piece of paper where you can see three rough edges of the paper that are cut off and sits on an off white flat surface. Towards the centre and bottom of the image are several blue ink dots that are clustered together in a loose line. Above this are several brown smaller dots in a loose pattern. There are a few small brown dots to the right of this configuration.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Kenneth Lambert
’Stasis’
OPEN CIRCLE
4 May 2023
1 - 2pm
Verge Gallery
Open Circle was a community-centred event that brought together participants and supporters of Stasis. The event featured musical and poetry performances from individuals associated with the project. The event was a chance to reflect on the creative process and gain a deeper understanding of the project's intention and underlying themes. Through this event we strove to create an inclusive and supportive environment for all participants and the broader community.
Kenneth Lambert, Distant Voices, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist.
ID: A black and white image. The faces of ten individuals, each captured in a headshot-like manner, presented in two rows of five against a completely black background. Wearing dark clothing, their physical bodies blend into the surrounding black background, creating the effect that the faces of the individuals are floating.
ART & TECHNOLOGY NOW: SYNTHETIC DISCORD
PANEL DISCUSSION
Thursday 11 May 2023
1-2pm
Incubate at the University of Sydney
Synthetic Discord saw Kenneth Lambert, Travis Rice (UNSW) and Ben Denham engage in a critical examination of the ethical and philosophical implications of technological advancements on contemporary art practice. Rice, a futurist and AI enthusiast, shed light on how artificial intelligence can shape the artist-audience relationship. Denham, an artist, writer, and filmmaker, challenged the legitimacy of AI as a contemporary art practice. Lambert moderated the discussion and used his practice to investigate the human condition through the lens of technology.
This event was Auslan interpreted.
Kenneth Lambert, Cranium (video still), 2022, 5 minute digital sequence, 3840 x 2160px. Image courtesy of the artist.
ID: An abstract image of what seems to be a series of orange and white dots on a black background. The dots are positioned towards the middle-left of the frame, leaving the right third of the image almost completely black. The dots are grouped together in cluster-like forms. Positioned next to each other, these 'clusters' of dots seem to weave throughout each other, evoking the effect of movement. Read as a whole, the dots seem to form a nebula-like structure.
This project was supported by Create NSW and Australia Council for the Arts.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
PARADISEC 20th Anniversary Celebration
CELEBRATION NIGHT
27 April 2023, 6pm - 9pm
Verge Gallery
PARADISEC (Pacific and Regional Archive for the Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures) safeguards records in more than 1350 of the world's languages, with a particular focus on the Pacific, and works to connect these records of cultural heritage with members of speaker communities.
Image courtesy of PARADISEC.
ID: A mid-shot image of two individuals torsos, one wearing a white top, the other black, and both in a brown-coloured raffia skirt. The individual on the left wears a lei wrapped around both arms - a red lei on their left arm, a multicoloured lei on their right. The individual on the right wears a beaded brown lei and is holding a raffia The left and middle of the image is overlayed by a pinky-red hue. A streak of a green hue overlays the right of the image. It appears the original image of the individual has been overlayed with a colourful image however the details of this image cannot be made out.
The celebration involved performances from several members of the PARADISEC community. This included: Darug singer/songwriter/research Jacinta Tobin, the Solomon Islands Young Women's Dance Group & Sydney Conservatorium student Taleialani who presented a commissioned multimedia work engaging with Pacific collections.
This event featured a Pacific Island feast to a backdrop of collages of key sounds and visuals from the collection! Pete and Seni Waqa, of Sydney's own Island Feast, served home-style Pacific Island dishes including lovo, food cooked in a traditional Fijian underground oven.
The event also saw the PARADISEC team and associates from Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne share stories about the organisation's history.
PARADISEC was a joint initiative of the University of Sydney, University of Melbourne and Australian National University.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
THE HORROR DEBATE
‘Being human is horrific. Agree or Disagree.’
13 July 2023, 6pm-8pm.
Verge Gallery
The Great Debate during the show Personal Best, 2019.
ID: There is a person presenting to a crowd of seated people in Verge Gallery. They are placed behind a lectern and microphone, with four people either side of them sitting down.
Running alongside our upcoming exhibition Horror Is Nothing Other Than Reality (HINOTR), The Horror Debate played on the long-standing history of debating at the University of Sydney. The Horror Debate saw two teams go head-to-head, contesting the question ‘Being human is horrific. Agree or disagree’. This debate saw the audience adjudicate, deciding which team puts forth the best argument.
This event was Auslan Interpreted.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
SCULPTSOUND HORROR
SculptSound Night
3 August 2023, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Verge Gallery
Image of Ben Carey. Photography by Kristoffer Paulse.
ID: A person with glasses and a black jumper is standing and looking down, in front of an electrical board with cords running across it.
SculptSound featured experimental performances from composer Ben Carey and musical duo, Chloe Kim and Jacques Emery.
Produced by musician AnSo, SculptSound was an iterative after-dark event consisting of live musical performances by sound artists and musicians. SculptSound offered audiences an opportunity to take a multi sensorial approach to engaging with the current exhibition. Aligning with themes in Verge’s artistic program, this series provided an inclusive platform for underrepresented artists.
WORKSHOP
ACCESSIBLE ARTS WRITING FOR EXHIBITIONS
Workshop time
18 August, 2023 1pm - 2:30pm
Verge Gallery
ID: There is a room full of people listening to a panel of five speakers talk. They are sitting in Verge Gallery in front of photographed artworks on a white wall.
Verge hosted a participatory workshop for arts writers with accessibility consultant Sarah Empey, taking participants through how she uses her unique perspective to describe art and to make gallery and museum spaces more accessible for the blind and low-vision community.
The workshop is held within the gallery, alongside Kuba Dorabialski’s exhibition Crying which has been installed to increase accessibility by including audio descriptions, QR codes with braille overlays, and tactile markings.
About Sarah Empey: Sarah Empey is legally blind and is currently working as a consultant with art galleries and museums. With lived experience and background in accessible and inclusive design, Sarah has set her “sights” on audio descriptions to bring the world of art to the blind and low-vision community. Sarah has worked with the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, William Robinson Gallery, Museum of Brisbane, and The Abbey Museum. Having grown up in Calgary, Canada, Sarah is currently living in Brisbane, Australia.
ARTIST TALK
”CRYING”
Kuba Dorabialski
Saturday 16 September, 2023
1:00-3:00pm
Verge Gallery was open on a Saturday afternoon to hear artist Kuba Dorabialski speak about his current exhibition, Crying. At this event, Dorabialski discussed his works which, as Curator Daniel Mudie Cunningham writes, act as ‘a meditation on homesickness experienced on colonised land’ whilst also providing insight into the experience of producing an accessible, co-designed exhibition.
This conversation was followed by a viewing of Dorabialski’s video work, Crying (18:42 minutes in length).
Kuba Dorabialski is an artist, filmmaker, and educator originally from Wrocław, Poland. Dorabialski’s work has been exhibited in the US, Europe, and Australia, and several of his videos are in the Artbank collection. In 2021, his Invocation Trilogy was exhibited at Carriageworks, Sydney, curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, and recently his feature film Connection of the Sticks premiered at the Sydney Film Festival.
Kuba Dorabialski, Crying , 2023, installation view, dimensions variable. Photo: Jessica Maurer.
ID: A framed photograph sits on a grey wall on the left side of the image, a projected video still sits on the right side of the image.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
”SCULPTSOUND CRYING”
SculptSound Night
21 September 2023, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Verge Gallery
Image of Jonathan Holowell and Sonya Holowell, still from film by Hospital Hill.
ID: A silhouette of a person playing the piano on the left half of the image, and a person singing with their eyes closed on the right side of the image.
Produced by musician AnSo, SculptSound wasan iterative after-dark event consisting of live musical performances by sound artists and musicians. This iteration of SculptSound sat alongside Crying by Kuba Dorabialski and featured experimental performances by Morgana Osaki and duo Holowell.
Morgana Osaki is a Japanese/Irish artist living on Eora country. Incorporating her classical background in harp, her musical style is a blend of experimental hip hop, pop and soundscaping created from sampling her environment and experiences with the intention of producing a more personal and intimate sound.
Sonya Holowell (voice) and Jonathan Holowell (Wurlitzer piano) responded to the artwork of Kuba Dorabialski in his exhibition Crying.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
’USU CREATIVE AWARDS’
Claire de Carteret, garden monster, 2022, Medium: Ceramic, Chun Glaze, 120 x 150 x 70mm. Image courtesy of the artist.
ID: A sculpture of a creature with four legs, long claws, spikes on legs, back and head. It’s smiling, its body grey with splotches of blue, and red eyes.
WORD NIGHT
Thursday 12 October, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Students shortlisted for the Word category of the Creative Awards read out excerpts of their pieces of writing at Verge. From narrative non-fiction to lyrical poetry, Spoken Word Night was an opportunity to engage with material written and performed by Sydney’s next generation of writers.
MUSIC NIGHT
Friday 13 October, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
From electronic to rap, R&B to pop, this event featured live performances by students shortlisted for the Music category of the Creative Awards.
ARTIST TALKS
Saturday 14 October, 11:00am - 2:00pm
Finalists of the Art category of the Creative Awards spoke about the concepts and processes which have informed their practices and led them to create the works featured within this year’s USU Creative Awards exhibition at Verge.
WORKSHOP
HOW TO BE AN ART CRITIC
Workshop time
6 October 2023, 12:00 - 01:30pm
Verge Gallery
Bonnie Huang , jesus crucified on the cross, 2022, found objects, silicone mask, metal sheet, pearls, scar wax, hot glue, bottle caps, synthetic cockroaches, Demonias, amyl bottles, iPod and earphones, 1800 x 500 mm. Photography by Jessica Maurer.
ID: A person is blurred on the left. They are staring at a silicone mask stretched across an Ipod case, both are very sheer white in tone. Below there is pearls dangled over silicone bra pads, they are both covered in fake blood with needles poking into the silicone.
'BARCOM GLEN' WALKING TOUR
Saturday 4 November, 2023 2pm - 4pm
Mitchel Cumming and Kenzee Patterson, joined by Michael Ingrey from the Gujaga Foundation, led a guided walking tour of ‘Barcom Glen’ in Gadigal/Paddington, the site of Thomas West’s watermill where two basalt millstones were in use between 1812-1830. This historical pair of millstones, currently in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum, featured in Cumming and Patterson's exhibition at Verge, A redistribution.
Following the original path of Rushcutters Creek - the water source that once fed the mill’s wheel - the artists, joined by speakers, reflected on the complex redistributions of landscape and population to which the millstones contributed.
The walk was followed by a catered picnic in Rushcutters Bay Park.
Detail of map produced by Reuss & Halloran, surveying the upper portion of the Barcom Glen Estate, circa 1858. State Library of NSW collection. Image courtesy of the artist.
ID: This is a detail of an old map circa 1858 which is a light brown colour with black thin lines and black cursive writing that describes a section of the Barcom Glen Estate. Part of the map is a pale blue colour with some writing and numbers in pencil.There are faint creases in the paper and one more noticeable crease on the right that is parallel to the right edge. There is a tear in the paper on the top right and the top left corner of the paper is missing.
CURATORIAL TALK
”ENTANGLED ME”
with Tesha Malott
Thursday 23 November 5:30-6:30pm
This event was a curatorial tour of Entangled Me with Tesha Malott, talks with exhibiting artists, and opening night drinks.
Entangled Me was an exploration of human connectedness with notions and beings beyond. Featuring work from Michelle Gearin, Simone Griffin, Tom Loveday, Charlotte Haywood, Chantelle Mitchell + Jaxon Waterhouse and Jacquie Meng.
Looking at modes of coexistence, works within the exhibition consider the wonderment and beauty of interspecies entanglement—the transcendental, spiritual, and sensual, showing identity as fluid over fixed and identity formation occurring not with the individual but within the links in-between beings.
Entangled Me was the second chapter in a series of exhibitions that looked critically at human-centric states of play. The first instalment, Horror Is Nothing Other Than Reality, occurred in July 2023.
Michelle Gearin, Prism, (detail), 2022, watercolour and oil on mounted Italian cotton paper, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of the artist.
ID: A watercolour painting of a creature with red and black fur holding two human babies.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
SCULPTSOUND - ENTANGLED ME
SculptSound Night
30 November 2023, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Verge Gallery
Image of AnSo, Amara, Archer, Emmy, and Risako photography by Estelle Yoon.
ID: Portrait of 5 artists looking at the camera, one artist in the centre, two with their heads at shoulder height, and two above.
Produced by musician AnSo, SculptSound was an iterative after-dark event consisting of live musical performances by sound artists and musicians. This iteration of SculptSound sat alongside Entangled Me and featured experimental performances by AnSo, Amara, Archer, Emmy, Risako and Flower Boy.
Flower Boy
flower boy 卓颖贤 paints emotional images with her classically-trained background combined with forward-thinking production. At the heart of her hazy songwriting is a duality of melancholic love songs and odes to identity and heritage.
Unafraid to play with textures, her soundscapes are anxious, ambient, and affecting in the extreme. Atmospheric beats and experimental percussion are pieced together to form visceral and unrelenting electronica, overlaid with emotive and expressive melodies. The vulnerability, intimacy, and rawness of flower boy 卓颖贤’s art is clear from the start. Refusing to cater to trends or adhere to particular genre ‘rules’, there is a certain power she brings to her music by knowing who she is and what she’s about. flower boy 卓颖贤 treats her life like a movie; she’s simply soundtracking it.
AnSo, Amara, Archer, Emmy, Risako
Step into the realm of experimental immersion through this collaborative performance featuring artists AnSo, Amara Shin, Archer Rose, Emmy Harkins, and Risako Katsumata. This unique performance intricately entangles AnSo's sculpting of sounds with the sculpting of space through movement improvisation and choreography. Together, they welcome audiences to delve into the synergy between sound and movement, crafting an experience that will entangle emotions.